Times Have Changed
by Uncommon-Aura
Summary: Special Agent Jay Alexander has known for a while that his childhood best friend is now running with the Cooper Gang... But when he finally catches her and gets to ask the all important questions burning in his mind, he doesn't get the answers he's looking for, and is left with more questions than before. (Self-Insert/OCs. Rated T. Filler drabble. Complete)


Been a while since I've done anything with this series, but I found this hiding half-finished in my documents, and decided to finish it up! Also, check out my new writing blog on Tumblr! Uncommon-Texts! I'll be posting all kinds of writing stuff there, including project related things and writing advice! I'll also answer questions if I get any!

* * *

Jay was having a hard time likening one of his childhood friends to the wanted criminal that he'd just caught and arrested. It was so hard to believe that this was her. That Nyx had really decided to join the Cooper gang and become a criminal. He still didn't believe it was something she'd do... Until now, anyways.

She didn't really seem too bothered by the fact that she'd been arrested and handcuffed. She looked rather calm, actually, something that Jay didn't see often. Most criminals would fight until they were locked in their cells, but not Nyx. She didn't even looked scared...

Instead, she looked sort of curious, and a bit bored, if not slightly defiant. She was studying Jay as he stood outside the vehicle he'd put her in, going over paperwork and waiting for Interpol to arrive. She hadn't said too much since being caught, which wasn't exactly too uncommon, though most criminals would try cutting deals or something by now.

Jay wasn't even sure if she recognized him, and he wasn't sure how to approach that - Or even if he should. Even without having seen current pictures of her from her file, he would have recognized her. Even though she was older now, had piercings, and had clearly dyed her hair a few times, she was still recognizable. The brown fur with both Siamese and tabby markings was hard to miss, and her slightly dark-ringed blue eyes were near unmistakable.

She was almost the same person he'd known when she and her mother moved, but at the same time she was different. She wasn't the shy, awkward Nyx that he'd known. She was tougher now, more seasoned in life. Jay supposed that maybe he was, too.

"So... How's Connor?"

He turned as Nyx finally spoke up. He kind of had to smile a little bit at that. "So, you do recognize me?"

"How I could I not?" Nyx asked, a smile playing on her lips. "How I could I spend five years of my life with someone and not recognize them?"

Jay scoffed. "You didn't say anything when I arrested you,"

Nyx shrugged languidly. "Figured you were a little preoccupied with arresting me. Didn't think it mattered if we know each other. Now, you didn't answer my question; How's Connor?"

"He's good," Jay replied slowly, nodding to himself. "He's a private detective now,"

"Oooh, so you both went into law, huh? Just like you always said you would, I guess?" Nyx hummed. "How long you been an Agent?"

"Four years," Jay replied. "...How long have you been with the Cooper gang?"

Nyx raised her eyebrows, and considered if she should answer that at all. After a moment, she did. "Going on two years,"

She didn't deny it, Jay noticed. Didn't try to get away from being associated with Sly Cooper. She just answered the question, didn't fight what the question was.

Jay silently thought over what to say next, before opening his mouth. "...How'd someone like you get caught up with Cooper? You never struck me as the criminal type,"

"I'll be honest," Nyx almost laughed. "Neither did I. Never expected that this would be where I ended up,"

"How'd you get here, then? What made you join an internationally wanted gang?" Jay asked. He and Connor had theories, but nothing concrete. And Interpol didn't have anything that would suggest why Nyx joined, or why Cooper wanted her.

Nyx hummed thoughtfully as she thought over the answer. "Sly saved me, at the beginning of the two years I've been with his gang,"

"So this is about repaying a debt?" Jay questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"Nah," Nyx scoffed. "Sly doesn't ask for debts, he's a good guy,"

Jay's eyebrows pulled back down, now. "He's a thief. A criminal. And so are you,"

Nyx shrugged. "And? He's still a good guy. We all are. I know that doesn't make much sense to you, but. The Cooper gang is my family now. It's right where I wanna be,"

There it was, right out of the horse's mouth. She wanted to be a part of the Cooper gang. She wasn't being forced, didn't have a debt to repay. She was there because she wanted to... She wanted to be a criminal... That just didn't make sense...

"I can see those gears in your head turning, Jay," Nyx laughed. "I know it doesn't make much sense. And I can't make you understand. But we're not your enemies. Trust me when I say that, okay?"

Jay gaped at her for a few moments, before finding words again. "You're a criminal, I'm a cop. How are we not enemies?"

"We might be criminals, but we're not bad guys, Jay," said Nyx, leaning towards the open window they were conversing through. "The law says what's legally right, but not what's morally right,"

Jay continued to stare at her for another moment. "You're right. You're not making any sense, and I don't understand. But I'd like to, you know..."

Nyx smiled at him, and hummed softly. "I'd like to explain it to you some day, but not today, I'm afraid,"

Jay raised an eyebrow. "Why not? We've got nothing to do while we wait for Interpol,"

"Exactly," Nyx purred. "I'm not waiting around for Interpol to show up,"

Before Jay could realize what she'd done, Nyx had the other car door open, was out of the vehicle, and was sprinting back towards the establishment he'd apprehended her in. He shouted her name at her, but that clearly didn't stop her. He drew his shock pistol and fired a shot that whizzed right by her head, but that didn't stop her, either.

He should have chased her, he realized. Should have ran her down and not stopped until he caught her again. But he _didn't_. He didn't have the heart to go chasing down one of his closest friends to arrest her again.

And perhaps... Perhaps some part of him wanted to believe that she wasn't his enemy...

* * *

She needed to get better at picking handcuff locks, she realized, as she sprinted away from Special Agent Alexander. When she was working a door and had lock picks, it was pretty easy. She was getting insanely good at getting in and out no problem.

But when she was handcuffed and all she had was her claws, it was a little tougher. Having long claws was one of those things she always knew was useful, but was even more so when you were in a gang of thieves. It was why Sly kept his own claws relatively long and sharp. Good melee weapons, good lock picks, if you know what you're doing.

And clearly, Nyx needed to practice a little. She hadn't expected it to take so long for her to get out of them. She was starting to worry that Interpol might actually show up before she did.

But she managed to get out of them, and escape Jay before that happened. Honestly, she hadn't expected to run into Jay like that. It had been years since they'd seen each other, and she hadn't even known that he'd followed in his parent's footsteps and joined the FBI. And it had to be some kind of crazy luck that he was the Agent who'd caught her, right?

Though it was luck she was thanking. She likely wouldn't have been able to strike up a conversation with any other Agent. She wasn't Sly, she wasn't insanely charming and talkative. So it worked out in her favor that it had been her old childhood pal that had tried arresting her.

Nyx was surprised that he hadn't given chase when she'd sprinted off, leaving behind nothing but the handcuffs. A shock pistol bolt had flown by her head, but it had missed by a rather wide margin. He hadn't meant to hit her with it, she thought...

Again, she was thanking the fact that it had been Jay. Any other Agent would have gone sprinting after her. But not Jay. He'd let her go. She hoped he wouldn't get into trouble for that...

With no one on her tail, Nyx sprinted through the amusement park they'd just helped shut down. It had been run by a sleazy guy named Gus Johnson, an old hog who only cared about profits. He treated his workers unfairly, and had cut corners when building the park. There had also been rumors of underground sales going on in the back rooms of this amusement park, and that had been enough to get Sly's attention.

They'd cased the place a few days, before Sly and Nyx approached Johnson, and got themselves invited into one of his little meetings. Sure enough, the old swine was selling stolen weapons, drugs, blueprints, you name it. They all agreed that this guy _had to go_.

So Bentley hatched a plan, and they got to work. It was Nyx's job to slip away during the big buy that Johnson had planned, and steal some important documents that would incriminate Johnson. After handing them off to Bentley, she was meant to return to Sly to help stop the buy.

Jay had caught her before she'd managed to get back to the meeting room, and had promptly dragged her off to his armored FBI car. Fancy thing, it was. Getting hung up with him had definitely wasted time; She needed to hurry up and meet her team so they could get out of there.

While she'd been in Jay's car, a conversation between Sly and Bentley had come through her earpiece. They were heading towards their getaway car, and if she didn't meet them in ten, they were coming to find her. Which probably wasn't a very good idea, since Interpol was on the way, and there were likely still angry members of Johnson's team hanging around.

Nyx made it through the amusement park in record time, and made it to the getaway car that they'd commandeered without an issue. She vaulted through the open backseat window, and landed behind the hippo who was driving. "Go!"

The car sped into motion the minute the word came out of her mouth; Murray needed no further explanation or direction. They took a back exit out of the park, crashing through a weak fence as they went. The distant sounds of sirens could be heard as they sped away, but Nyx knew where they'd be going; The location where she'd left Jay.

Still, she found herself looking over her shoulder, expecting a chase to commence. It never did, and they got away relatively clean. When they merged with traffic and slowed to a reasonable pace, Nyx let out a sigh and leaned back as she reached for her seat belt. "So. That could've gone a little better. We all okay?"

"Yeah," replied Sly, who was leaned over the passenger's seat to look over the stolen files with Bentley. But he turned to Nyx as he answered her. "What happened to you, though? Did you get caught?"

Nyx gave another sigh, this one sort of dejected. "Yeah..."

Sly raised an eyebrow. "Not like you to let some greasy paid muscle hang you up. Not off your game, are you?"

The cat snorted and swatted at Sly's shoulder. "No. Got caught by an FBI Agent..."

That got Bentley's attention, and he leaned around his seat to look at her. "The FBI was here? I knew this case had originated with them, but I was under the impression that they'd lost track of this guy..."

"Guess not," Nyx replied with a sigh.

"You're okay, though, right?" Sly asked, looking his teammate over for injuries.

Nyx nodded. "I'm good. He uh. He couldn't have hurt me if he wanted to... We uh... _I knew him_..."

Now she had the attention of everyone in the car. "You knew him?" echoed Murray, using the rear view mirror to look at her. "You never mentioned having cop friends,"

"Didn't know he was... It's been years since I've seen him... But there was no mistaking one of my best friends..." Nyx replied. "His name's Jay Alexander. And I guess I got lucky, getting caught by him. Might not have been able to escape anyone else,"

"Thank god for small favors, right?" Sly chuckled.

Nyx sighed. "Yeah..."

* * *

Jay was just about pissed enough to shoot himself. Perhaps not anywhere vital, but he felt like he deserved a round to the foot or something. Letting Nyx go was the dumbest thing he'd ever done, hands down. And his superiors thought the exact same thing.

And they didn't even know that he'd let her go. They were under the impression that she'd evaded him. They didn't even know that he knew her... And he really hoped to keep it that way. Personal involvement in a case is never a good thing.

Jay sighed as he trekked into his office late in the night, throwing his holster and jacket onto the couch there. At his desk, sat a very familiar heavyset fruit bat. Upon hearing Jay enter, he turned. "So, how'd it pan out?"

Jay heaved a very heavy sigh, and flopped onto his couch. "Very, very badly..."

"Wanna talk about it?" the other asked, leaning back and raising his eyebrows.

Jay hummed. "Connor, you know it's technically illegal for me to share case information with you..."

"Never stopped you before," said Connor with a shrug. "Now lay it on me, partner. What went so wrong? Bad intel?"

" _No_ ," Jay sighed. "The intel was good, Gus Johnson was there, had built an entire operation around the damn amusement park. He ignored regulations and cut corners regarding safety procedures, not to mention treated his workers like shit... He was arranging black markets buys behind the scenes, using the amusement park as a cover... So, we tried to get in..."

"How'd that go?" Connor asked. "I take it this is where it all went wrong?"

"In five thousand ways..." Jay groaned. "I wasn't on the inside, Agents Morrison and Campbell were posing as potential buyers. I was tasked with trying to find the cache of stuff he was selling and hoarding. His internal systems had been hacked before we got to them, and that made it easy for us to get in and figure out where things might be..."

Connor hummed. "So someone else was after the guy?"

Jay nodded, and gave his partner a very tired look. "They were there, too. Also posing as buyers, according to Morrison. A cat and a raccoon..."

Connor blinked slowly. " _Nyx and Cooper_..."

"You got it..." Jay mumbled. "Morrison says that Nyx slipped away during the buy. Don't know where she went... I caught her as she tried to rejoin the buy, and subdued her. Meanwhile, Morrison and Campbell were shutting down the buy. They tried to apprehend the buyers, but Cooper was. Well, he's _Cooper_. Guy is impossible to catch... He slipped out without anyone noticing until it was too late..."

"What about Nyx? You had her," Connor questioned. "Did she say anything? Did they let her go?"

" _Had_ her, yeah..." sighed Jay. "And no, not exactly... ' _They_ ' didn't..."

Connor raised his eyebrows, but said nothing. The look alone was enough to make Jay sigh tensely, and continue exasperatedly. "I wasn't even sure if she recognized me at first... She didn't say a damn thing... Didn't try pleading the fifth, didn't try bargaining... Nothing. Woman was silent. Then, outta nowhere, she asks how you're doing. I start asking questions in return about Cooper..."

"And what did she say...?" asked Connor slowly. They'd been wanting to know just why she'd joined a criminal gang for so long... Did they finally have an answer?

Jay bit his lip and sighed heavily. Then he looked at Connor with a defeated look. "She says he saved her. Back in Paris. And that he's a good guy and she's working with him because she wants to,"

Connor looked away for a moment as he began to unravel this fact. " _So_... He's not forcing her, not promising her anything big. She doesn't owe him...? She just. Wants to stay? Wants to be a criminal?"

Jay threw his hands into the air in a half-assed gesture of confusion. "I don't get it, either... She doesn't wanna hurt anyone, she's not in it for the money... There's no political reason, either... She's just. Doing this..."

Connor drummed his fingers on the armrest of the chair he was sat in. "Yeah, that doesn't make any sense... We're still missing something... So how'd you lose her?"

"She picked the cuffs while we were talking..." Jay sighed, embarrassed that she'd distracted him so easily. "She was out the other side of the car before I could stop her..."

Connor studied Jay for a long moment, before realizing why he was so put off. "You didn't chase her?"

"No," Jay muttered. "I _didn't_. I didn't have it in me, Connor... She was our friend... You think I wanted to chase her down and put her back in cuffs?" he paused to sigh. "It just didn't feel right..."

"Why not?" Connor asked. "Lots of good people have turned to crime for one reason or another, and you've put them away. She's no different. Doesn't matter if we knew her... You think she'd pull her punches for us? What'd she say to make you let a criminal go?"

Jay chewed at his lip and then looked up at Connor. The look on his face said that he was going to say something important and controversial. "She said that she's not our enemy..."

Connor gave his partner a perplexed look. "Now how does that one work?"

"I don't know..." Jay sighed, pursing his lips and looking away. "She's a criminal now, Connor... She _should_ be our enemy..."

"But you don't feel that way?" Connor asked.

A series of conflicted emotions crossed Jay's face, before he found a suitable way to respond to that. "I want to believe that she's still the same person we knew... And the Nyx we knew was a good person... I wanna trust her when she said that she's not our enemy..."

Connor sighed. "People change you know... You don't know what could've happened to her to change her..."

"I know," Jay groaned. "But don't you wanna believe that she's not someone bad? That our best friend hasn't really become a villain?"

"I do," Connor admitted. "But I'm a realist, Jay, and usually you are, too. You know the facts, partner... You know what the Cooper Gang does, and you know she's been with them for two years..."

Jay sighed, conflict clear on his face. He thought it over for a long moment, before sighing. He was too tired to keep arguing or trying to figure this out. He stood from his couch, and headed for the door. "Yeah, I guess you're right..."

And with that, Jay left. After a conversation like that... He needed some coffee. And some alone time to think this over...


End file.
